


Answer me

by Noscere



Series: Cladograms and Phylogenies [7]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Abandonment, F/M, Five Stages of Grief, Grief/Mourning, The one left behind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-24
Updated: 2016-01-24
Packaged: 2018-05-15 22:53:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5803471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noscere/pseuds/Noscere
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They stay, across a void, untouchable by spirit and bound by death. Summer Rose wishes she could do more than watch her lover degrade.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Answer me

Summer had to restrain a sigh as she watched Taiyang approach her grave. It was easier said than done, particularly since it had been at least a decade since her lungs last drew breath.

It was the middle of winter in Patch. Heavy snow blanketed the tombstone: all that was visible was the Rose-Xiao Long family crest – a burning rose – inscribed at the top. Long tendrils of ice snaked their way down the cliff side, all the way to the turbid waters below.

Her dumbass of a husband was still wearing shorts. Judging by the way they clung to his biceps, she wouldn’t be surprised if they were from the post-Beacon days. 

He was a mere pinprick of gold and brown against the snow, but she felt the heat of his Aura resonating through the air. At least he was carrying his weapons: two battle axes strapped to his back, and a handgun on each hip. Taiyang had always loved symmetry. He wouldn’t eat the sandwiches she packed if they were cut into triangles rather than squares. Not Yang though – Yang would eat anything Summer cooked, as long as she had fresh cookies before bedtime.

Of course, Yang wasn’t the chubby six-year old that Summer remembered. Summer had trailed behind the girl as Yang trudged into the forest and straight into the abandoned house. Thank Dust good old Qrow had been there. Summer had no desire to see her daughters beyond the veil until they were wizened, ancient, and finally tired enough to sleep.

Her spirit drifted out towards her husband. His breath rose in great puffs as his Aura flared within, keeping him warm. She remembered its heat on her thighs, before the scruff of his chin would scrape against her skin and jerk her out of her haze. They would laugh – Taiyang would tuck a hand under her hips and lift them towards his lips – and she’d fall under his spell once again. Summer shook her head – how long had it been since she last had a body? Ten years? Twelve?

She imagined her boots crunching through the snowbank beside him, and the swish of her cloak against snow-laden twigs. Once upon a time, they had hunted Grimm just like this. Taiyang was humming a jaunty tune. Raven used to loathe his singing while team STRQ were on the hunt. “ _You’ll alert the Grimm and be the death of us all_ ,” she used to say.

Summer rolled her eyes. It was harder to focus on one thing these days. The loneliness of her resting place was getting to her head.

It had been a long time since anyone had visited. Though her body was lost to the Grimm deep in a Mistralian forest, Summer had decided to linger at the altar her family had built. It would make it easier for the girls, Taiyang and Qrow to visit. Then again, her family had the annoying tendency of getting themselves into far too much trouble over the slightest mistake.

The last time Ruby had visited her grave, Summer had the equivalent of a ghost heart-attack. What was her daughter thinking? Drowning in grief and loneliness – pure Grimm bait, and her mother was nowhere near to protect her.

Summer shook herself. Ruby had grown as well, from a toddler huddled in a red cape to a warrior dripping with the blood of her foes. She didn’t need her mother to hang over her shoulder and fuss over every scrape… still, Summer wished she could have held her daughter as Ruby crumpled to the ground, mourning her friend Penny. The mother wasn’t sure if the duo had gone beyond friends. It was harder to cling to the mortal world these days – it was only Ruby’s pain that summoned her to Amity Coliseum.

 _I abandoned you_ , Summer thought. _I’m so sorry, my darling girls_.

 

Taiyang finally trudged to the grave. He knelt before the tombstone.

“Hey, love.” He brushed a reverent hand against the inscribed rose. “The peace and quiet isn’t driving you crazy, I hope?” He chuckled. “Raven would love it out here. Woods, trees, nothing but birds singing for miles, the whole nature shebang.” Her husband leaned towards the grave. “Just between you and me, it might’ve been my singing that drove her away.” 

Summer attempted to smack her husband. Her hand passed harmlessly through. Once upon a time, it would have hit his padded leather vest and forced the breath from him. He would have grinned, and wrestled her to the ground. _“Is that all you can do?_ ” she imagined Taiyang saying, as he straddled her hips. “ _The great and powerful leader of team STRQ, slayer of monsters, baker of cookies. Felled by her husband_. _What will the world do now?_ ”

“Just like the good old days, huh? You want to smack me pretty badly, don’t you.” Taiyang grinned. “Well. I wouldn’t protest if you decided to join me now, prove you’re not dead and all. Would be a decent birthday present.”

Taiyang’s grin soon faded. He settled onto his haunches.

“I miss her.” His breath coalesced about his shoulders in white clouds. “I love you, Summer, but I still love her too. And now… Qrow tells me she’s still alive. All these years.” Her husband’s shoulders shook. “A decade. A decade of complete silence.”

She longed to reach past the veil, and wipe the tears from his cheeks. Summer tried – she summoned every ounce of Aura still left to her in the land of the dead. The tears rolled on, unhindered by the ghost’s touch.

“She sent me a message. Well, through Qrow. Told me she was busy, off saving the world, and that she would explain everything once she got back. As if she was just out doing groceries.”

A Beowolf howled in the distance. Summer cast her thoughts outwards – it was still a kilometer away. Taiyang was safe for now. Still, to be safe, she jabbed her Aura in the Grimm’s direction. She heard it yelp, and scamper off.

“Summer, what am I supposed to do? You’re gone. I love you, but you’re gone, and everyone tells me to move on.” Taiyang brushed the snow from the gravestone. “At least, I hope you’re not doing a Raven. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t compare you two. The disappearing act was never your style. You were the dependable one. You were the team leader for a reason.”

 

She sat before him, perched on her grave, and cupped his face. Summer imagined the scruff poking at the pad of her palms, feeling her way to the deep lines carved below his eyes. She had dreamed of him long ago, kissing his way down her chest to her hips. She had him for six years, six years of late-night cuddles and squabbling over the covers and tucking Ruby into bed and slicing Grimm to shreds. But it had been her time. Those days were no more.

“I would do those years all over again,” he said hoarsely. “You, Yang, Ruby… the best things to ever happen to this sorry man.” His hands settled on his handguns.

Summer’s eyes widened. She shot forward, and clung to him.

_Damn it, Taiyang! Don’t you dare!_

 

“I’m so tired, Summer. Look at me. Yang got disqualified from the tournament, Ruby had a breakdown, then Beacon fell. And… and I’m just here, tending to the kids at Signal, just readying them for a slaughter. I didn’t even go to Beacon as it fell. They told me I needed to stay at Signal, and prepare them for the world to come. There’s no _point_ to this, Summer!”

Taiyang let out a bestial roar, as his Semblance flared. Power swept through his veins, igniting tiny fires along his skin that instantly melted the snow. Summer clung to him – _damn it, Taiyang,_ she thought as she cried into his shoulder, _you’re not alone, I’m here, I’m here–_

“I’m a teacher, damn it! I’m a father, and a husband, not a soldier or a drill sergeant! Those kids are going to die. They’re going to die, just like you did, and there’s no way for me to stop it!” He slammed a fist into the grass. “Ruby and Yang are going to go out just like you. They’re fully-fledged Huntresses now, because they survived the attack on Beacon. And now they’re roaming the world, fighting Grimm, fighting criminals, fighting a goddamn war. My daughters – the only reason I have to live – they are going to die. They are going to leave me alone. We’re supposed to live in a time of peace! They were supposed to be safe!”

A chorus of Beowolves started in the forest. Summer tried to push them back, but the pack had tasted misery and fear in the air. Hundreds of Grimm had sensed their next meal.

Taiyang shook as his Semblance consumed him in flame, urging him to burn and burn until he fell in battle.

 _No! Taiyang! Please, don’t do this!_ Summer urged as she pressed kisses along his cheeks. She prayed that he could feel her. Taiyang’s tears were steaming now, boiling rivers of fluid coursing down his face. _Damn you. Don’t you dare give up! I’m still here! Qrow’s still here! Ruby and Yang, we’re all still here!_

“Is this what Raven wanted?” he growled. “Is this what she fought for? A world consumed by war and Grimm? Is this what she left me for?” Taiyang clawed at the ground. “Then that’s what she’ll get! She’ll watch everything you and I built together burn, because she didn’t give enough of a damn about her own family!”

“An entire decade. She abandoned everyone.”

The howls grew louder.

Taiyang stood and whipped his axes off his back, in time to cleave through a Beowolf. His semblance instantly cauterized the wound. The axe swung on, setting another Beowolf on fire.

 

Summer could only watch as her husband charged the army of Grimm. Flames flew, metal scythed through bone plates and condensed darkness, flesh ripped and tore – he was a one man army, but his grief had summoned hundreds to the cliff side altar. She helped where she could – a pulse of Aura to deflect claws from his bared throat, a stab at a would-be killer – but she was a ghost bound to the mortal plane.

A fire started in the grass left bare from Taiyang’s flames. It roared, reaping any Grimm unlucky enough to stumble into its maw. Taiyang screamed, a senseless animal in the throes of his rage. Bits of Grimm clung to deep scratches down his sides. They only enraged the berserker, who tore through any Grimm imprudent enough to venture near.

The pack thinned, but Taiyang wasn’t satisfied. He brought one axe down, splitting an Alpha Beowolf’s skull, before kicking its dissolving remains away. The other slit a young Beowulf’s throat, scattering its essence into the frostbitten air. His Aura slowly dwindled, but bloodlust had engulfed the Huntsman. He bled anger and pain, drawing the Grimm into the embrace of his blades. At that moment, Summer saw with frightening clarity the man her husband tried to hide. Raven had brought it out, even back at Beacon – she said it made him a better fighter. There was a monster inside Taiyang, one born of grief and loneliness and anger, and it was clawing its way out of his soul.

Summer wondered if that was the reason why Raven wore the Nevermore mask. While Raven bore a monster’s face, Taiyang chose the face of a harmless teacher.

 

At last, the stragglers fell. Taiyang bled from a thousand places, deep wounds even a good dose of Aura couldn’t seal, but he was still alive.

“Fuck!” He staggered back to the grave and collapsed at its foot. “I can’t– see, Summer? I try and I try, but I just can’t die! I should be the one dying. Not Ruby, not Yang, not even the dumbass kids in my classes.”

The forest fell silent once more, but for the waves crashing into the cliff below.

Taiyang tilted his head back. The snow had started up again, blanketing the remains of the battle. The errant flake rested on his bloodied face, freezing to his skin.

Summer’s strength was flagging from all the blows she had taken for Taiyang. She reached towards him, fingers gliding over his wounds. There were too many, and he had lost so much blood – damn it, if only she was alive, she could have fixed this all…

As she slipped back beyond the veil, she could barely hear Taiyang’s voice.

“I’m so tired, Summer…”


End file.
